Celebrated Human Rights Lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde has dismissed the apology of Uganda’s Chief Justice Owiny Dollo to Buganda describing the gesture as a “non-apology apology.
On Thursday, March 31st, CJ Dollo turned up at the Buganda Kingdom headquarters in Bulange, Mengo, to publicly apologize to the Kabaka and Buganda at large for having stated that the Kabaka of Buganda was last year flown out for treatment abroad using taxpayers’ money, comments which later turned brutal and forced him to retract.
According to Ssemakadde, the Chief Justice’s apology cannot be accepted because although he apologized to Kabaka Mutebi, he did not apologize to his subjects, the Baganda, who he ridiculed in his utterances.
Ahead of the much-anticipated rendezvous, Ssemakadde tweeted that Dollo’s wickedness will be exposed, “unless of course he goes to Bulange and withdraws his non-apology apology,” referring to the CJ’s statement of apology that appeared in DailyMonitor on Tuesday, 29 March 2022.
The outspoken city lawyer, who is among those Dollo has been bashing and demonizing for using social media to criticize judicial officers, is of the view that there is a lot for which the CJ and other public officials should be apologizing beyond the disparaging remarks the man from Agago made against the Kabaka.
Referencing to one of Prof GW Kanyeihamba’s books, Semakadde calls on Baganda not to be so simplistic to the extent of just taking in and accepting Dollo’s apology without subjecting the same to extensive scrutiny.
Ssemakadde states that what Dollo exhibited at Bulange was nothing but “Beguile humility” which he condemns the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, some of whose leaders escorted Dollo, for attempting to authenticate.
In a second update to his 57,000 followers on Twitter, the expert constitutional and human rights lawyer whose bio identifies him as ‘Legal Rebel,’ wondered why the CJ asked the Katikkiro to send away journalists before he can deliver his ‘apology’.
“What’s he hiding? His remorse?” the Legal Rebel wondered.
Ssemakadde then noted that the CJ looked keen to “apologize” to the Kabaka but not to his subjects, including members of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), whom he had equally attacked.
“Will CJ Owiny Dollo also go to #Kamwokya & extend an olive branch to NUP which he attacked unreasonably?” the Legal Rebel as he likes to be called said in a tweet.
The seasoned lawyer did not spare the Katikkiro either, asking why CP Mayiga was eager to “move on.”
“It’s curious that the Katikkiro of Buganda, also a seasoned lawyer, asks us to “leave what was said behind us & focus on a dignified burial for @JacobOulanyah — well knowing that the question as to CJ Dollo’s FIDELITY TO THE CONSTITUTION OF UGANDA hasn’t been resolved at Bulange,” another tweet asked.
The influential advocate said that the meeting between Dollo and the Katikkiro did little to address the issues of freedom and justice facing ordinary Ugandans.
“There’s only one conclusion to draw from what was left unsaid,” Ssemakadde notes, “All these oligarchic elites are uninterested in, and actually opposed to, the PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLE & PROTEST. They want closed-door business!”
Semakadde reminded Dollo that “An apology is yet to be delivered to political prisoners & victims of torture, and misrule.”
He laughed off Mayiga’s assertion that Dollo had been “courageous” to apologize. “True courage is to stand against evil, even when we stand alone,” Ssemakadde tweeted.
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